Broadband ocean bottom seismometer in the Gulf of Cadiz (offshore SW Iberia and NW of Moroccan margin): Characterization of ambient noise and tomographic model of the crustal structure.

Abstract:

In this study, we use the continuous data recorded by 24 broadband ocean bottom seismometers (OBS-BB) deployed in the Gulf of Cadiz, in the framework of the NEAREST project, from September 2007 to July of 2008. Our goals are: i) to understand the instrument and the environmental conditions that control the observed seismic noise; and ii) to obtain reliable broadband surface wave dispersion measurements.

The noise sources are investigated through the probability density functions (PDFs) of power spectral density (PSDs), which provides insights on the generation and propagating of seismic noise in the Gulf of Cadiz.

We show the results of the Rayleigh wave group velocity tomography performed using ambient seismic noise observed on the 24 broadband OBS and on 7 broadband land stations located in the south of Portugal.

The time-series, for the 11 months, were cross-correlated to obtain the empirical Green's functions between all vertical sensors pairs, namely the OBS-vertical, the OBS-hydrophone and the vertical component of the land seismic stations. To improve the signal-to-noise ratio, the individual cross-correlograms were summed using a time-frequency domain phase weighted stack.

The stacked cross-correlograms enabled us to compute short-period surface-wave group-velocity measurements for all the interstation paths. We used these measurements to construct maps of Rayleigh-wave group-velocity lateral perturbations, at different periods.

Despite the great difference in the crustal structure below the OBS (thin continental or oceanic type) and the land stations (typical continental crust, 30 km thick) we were able to derive high S/N cross-correlations between these different types of sensors.

This study was co-sponsored by several projects namely the QuakeLoc-PT (PTDC/GEO-FIQ/3522/2012), AQUAREL (PTDC/CTE-GIX/116819/2010), NEAREST FP6-2005-GLOBAL-4 (OJ 2005 C177/15), WILAS (PTDC/CTE-GIX/097946/2008), and PEST-OE/CTE/LA-0019/2013-2014.